Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Stephen Ambrose and his books

The Airborne is in no position to care for, feed, etc, prisoners. Expected casualty rates on a combat jump is 50%. You physically can not take 20% of you force for prisioners, it would actually becomes almost half of the expected functional men. Thus in Band of Brothers the Sargent shoots them. Very realistic.
A good friend, 1994, Cristmas Eve, in a lounge on the beach in Ft Walton Beach, asked me; Where was I 50 years ago, you were in Bastogne freezing your adz off. We were both in the 101st, years apart, so understod what is required. he was the Silver Star awardee in the church steepel, in Holland, actually directing the Artillery fire
. Ambrose got that wrong in his book, he thought it was the 1st Lt, but he was actually on the phone in the bushes on the ground. Paul Bebout was one actually directing the fire, the land line wire was not long enough to go up the stairs.
Asked Paul why he did not straghten that all out, he simply said: He did not get the Silver Star, I did. If you look in the index Paul Bebout is there, but no note about the church and him, which got blown out from under Paul by 88s. Paul is gone now as are all the Brother members. Cancer knows no age restriction.
During the years I served, about 70% of our senior NCOs and Officers were WWII vets, never worried about your 6, at any time. Three bronze stars on the wings tells you they knew how to survive and to fight.

I read a few of his books years ago. I take this as a reminder to circle back at some point and see what I've missed - seems like quite a bit. I mostly read first hand accounts, largely pacific theatre WWII, but with a few Korean and Vietnam accounts thrown in on occasion.

Have read a number of his books. Some I remember:
CrazyHorse &Custer, struggled with this a bit -
Comrades
The Good Fight
American Heritage
Wild Blue
My favs:
Citizen Soldiers
Band of Bros
The best "D" day book I read - "D" Day

One of my lifelong regrets is that I did not take a course taught by Stephen Ambrose when I attended the University of New Orleans. He was in the early part of his tenure there, and the history department had some really great professors who went way beyond the usual “names, dates, places” history that provides no context. I have read most of his books over the years, and still have more to go. (I am not ready to tackle Nixon anytime soon.) My wife and I have made a couple of Lewis and Clark car vacations through Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and Undaunted Courage and the actual Lewis and Clark journals (you can get all the thousands of pages for about a buck online) were studied before, during and after the trips. They really added a lot of context and enjoyment. I hope to be able to do some of that in Europe at some point, with Ambrose’s WWII books loaded on the iPad.

For those who have not done so, I highly recommend the book that he was finishing just before his death, To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian. It is very uplifting and positive on America, a refreshing change from the tribal politics of today. (By the way, for those who think that the years since his death are a totally new thing, you may want to take a look at Empire of Liberty by Gordon S. Wood.)

I saw “Reflections” when I looked up “Undaunted Courage”.
That looks like a great one to read when I get a chance.
7mm